We wish you
all the blessings of this beautiful Easter season. Thank you for your
prayers, messages and kindness at this time. It was with great joy that
we sang the Alleluias at the Easter Vigil last night. During the week we
read the following: “The Alleluia is like a first revelation of what can
and shall someday take place in us: our entire being shall turn into a single
immense joy.” (Joseph Ratzinger)

Our Lent
was a bit different from what it usually is, as you can imagine. It had
both its joys and sorrows, and plenty else besides. On St Patrick’s Day
we were pleased to welcome a young woman, who has come for a 3-month
aspirancy. Her presence has been a great blessing to us, and she has
willingly shared her talents, playing the organ for Mass this morning.
Please keep her in your prayers, and also the other young women who are showing
interest in our Carmelite life.

On St
Joseph’s Day, Sr Mary of the Sacred Heart went home to the Lord. When we
last saw her she kept asking us why the Lord hadn’t come for her yet. So
it was with both sorrow at her leaving us and joy that she is finally with the
Lord forever, that we farewelled her. Sr Mary of the Angels is still
resident in Nelson, but things are looking bright for a return to Christchurch
soon. She was able to come down for a few days for Sr Mary of the Sacred
Heart’s funeral on 24th March and will be coming down for a
few more days in early May. There are 200 elderly evacuees all wanting to
return home to Christchurch. The number of hospital and rest home beds
available has dropped markedly, after many rest homes were damaged.

The Sisters
who live in our older building, and who were still sleeping down in the
Infirmary for safety, decided it was high time to move back upstairs in time
for the silence of Holy Week, and spent last Saturday moving up. As if on
cue, that same evening during Silent Prayer we had the biggest aftershock (5.3)
since 22nd February. It was very violent, sending us all to
places of safety, but surprisingly we had no more damage. Our
neighbouring suburb lost electricity, meaning that the Saturday Vigil Mass for
Palm Sunday at our Parish was mostly carried out by candlelight. News
travels fast, and within half an hour of the aftershock we were fielding phone
calls from all over the country inquiring as to our safety. The Sisters
braved it, nevertheless, and nervously returned upstairs .

One day in
March a team of officials clad in florescent colours and all sorts of labels
hanging off them arrived to check our wall after concerns were lodged with the
City Council regarding its safety. They found it dangerous in many
parts. A builder was contracted to buttress it up along the parts where
the public may be in danger. Any non-urgent repairs are a long way off –
as there are so many seriously damaged homes in Christchurch, the Earthquake
Commission (EQC)will be focussing on them, and the lesser-damaged ones won’t
get a proper inspection for 8-9 months, with repairs following after
that. Our water pipes are continuing to protest against the continuing
earth movement by bursting all over the place, and we have averaged more than
one visit from plumbers per week for the whole of Lent (including Holy
Week). We regularly find suspicious pools of water on the lawn, then have
to break the news to Mother Dorothea who has to phone the plumbers once
again. One man who came had been working since 4am – they are really
going the extra mile. As the cold weather descended last week we
discovered that the separation between our Infirmary building and the main
thoroughfare, which noisily parted company on the 22nd, was letting
in draughts of bitterly cold air, so our builder was here during Holy Week to
do temporary repairs to make it more weatherproof. Any permanent fixes
will have to wait till after the EQC inspection, so that will push them on to
next year. On April 8th the requirement to boil all drinking water
was lifted, which simplified things a bit.

In other
areas life is continuing as usual. During Lent we hired a big skip and
filled it to the brim with rubbish from the monastery, gardens and
paddocks. We have also had the best walnut and chestnut harvest that
we’ve had for years. As we were securing our statues in the interquake
period (September – February), one of our painters who was helping us,
commented that we had the biggest statue collection he had ever seen. The
population has now increased considerably, as broken statues from all over the
city turn up, each with its own tale of woe. Sr Marietta is doing great
work, assisted by others where needed. Some of the
statues are in a very bad state, but so long as the face is preserved, most of
them are able to be repaired (with much prayer, dedication and glue).

The grass
is growing up through the large patches left when the liquefaction was removed,
and we are getting used to the cracks in the buildings and pathways.
Compared to so many, our damage has been mild. We know people still
living in homes which will need to be demolished. There will be much
hardship as autumn turns to winter and the damage and overcrowding in some
areas take their toll. We ask you to continue to keep all those who are
suffering in your prayers. We are also mindful of the terrible
destruction in Japan, and while we were relieved to hear that our Carmels there
were safe, we are saddened by the suffering of so many.

We were
reminiscing this morning about how many of our good friends have died since
last Easter. In the past 8 months, one bishop and 4 priests of our
diocese have died (all dear friends of our Carmel), including on Monday of Holy
Week, Fr Paul Duncan, Parish Priest of Mairehau, after a long battle with
cancer. Fr Paul was only in his 50’s. Please keep him in your
prayers and his mother, Mary, who will miss him dearly. When we heard
that our Bishop Barry Jones had suffered a stroke in late March, we wondered
what next? Fortunately he is recovering well, and we are seeing many
other signs of new life and hope coming through these trials.

All of the
Sisters send their love. Everyone remains in good spirits, and there has
been much humour as we make the necessary adjustments to the often changing
circumstances we find ourselves in. We look forward to the next 50 days
of rejoicing, as we celebrate our Redemption, which came by way of the Cross.